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Is California Pizza Kitchen fast food?
- Thread starter Icemonk191
- Start date
It's that weird tier TGIF/Chili's is in where it's not fast food but it's still a nationwide chain and not fancy at all
Places like CPK will self-label as "fast casual" which really isn't many steps up from fast food. The main difference is that you're actually getting (some) tableside service and as a result the prices are higher, but the quality of the food is identical to what you'd get at a random franchised drivethrough anywhere in the Greater American Monoculture.
CPK's pizza quality is pretty bottom-tier fast food. So it is fast food. Expensive fast food, but still fast food.
CPK's pizza quality is pretty bottom-tier fast food. So it is fast food. Expensive fast food, but still fast food.
iirc fast food is considered mass produced entrees with no frills
I'm not sure I've ever been to one, but I think you get seated, waited on, and your food is cooked to order? That's just a chain restaurant. Whether a place is in the fast food category is more about the style of service, and less the nature of the food itself. (Do you order at a counter or drive-thru, do they pre-prepare any of the dishes, etc.)
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I mean I've never been in one but from the one I've seen at the mall I go to sometimes it seems to be a sit down restaurant.
I mean it could be one of those casual ones that make it seem like it's more than it is when a lot of the food is really microwaved so I don't know tbh.
I mean it could be one of those casual ones that make it seem like it's more than it is when a lot of the food is really microwaved so I don't know tbh.
Is fast food any large chain that has a drive-thru? Cause that's how I've always thought of it (probably incorrectly so).
The thing about good pizza (fresh dough, correct thickness, etc) cooked in a proper oven is always fast, but it's not fast food by the common reckoning.
California Pizza Kitchen makes their dough fresh, I'm told anyway, and they use wood stone ovens. So I'd say they're at least making it right. Fast food pizza would be Dominos. Frozen everything developed in a lab somewhere, plopped onto a conveyor belt oven, all thick and doughy. Ugh.
California Pizza Kitchen makes their dough fresh, I'm told anyway, and they use wood stone ovens. So I'd say they're at least making it right. Fast food pizza would be Dominos. Frozen everything developed in a lab somewhere, plopped onto a conveyor belt oven, all thick and doughy. Ugh.
It's "casual dining" technically.
I'd say it probably is a fast food chain because it has all the trappings of a fast food chain, but with a sit-down vibe.
So I guess this is tied to whether or not you think Applebees, Red Robin, etc. are fast food.
I'd say it probably is a fast food chain because it has all the trappings of a fast food chain, but with a sit-down vibe.
Can I go to the drive-thru (or hell to be generous, pick-up?), it's prepared within a couple minutes or less and I can eat it on-the-go?
The reason is the relative number of staff and the general business requirements of where to build a CPK (i.e. they have to build where people who don't know any better will gladly pay $25 for really crummy pizza, so west la, etc.).
Their pizza isn't *that* bad. I would take CPK over most of the other national brands any day if not for the poor price-to-pizza ratio. There are a lot of places you can't get good local pizza.
If you want to split hairs, does that mean Shake Shack isn't fast food? Or Chipotle?
I know technically both of them are "fast casual", but that's basically saying they're fast food with higher quality.
I thought QSR was literally the term of art for fast food restaurants with an inferiority complex, not middle-tier casual fare with sit-down service.
Nothing may compare to the interminably slow performance of a Buffalo Wild Wings (if this is somehow a QSR then the term has no meaning based on how consistently slow the service is at these across multiple locations across the country) but I think if you're being handed a check rather than paying at a counter it's hard for me to agree it's really quick-service whether or not you're sitting down when served. But I dunno, this stuff is pretty far afield from anything I have any real expertise in beyond putting on the McElroy podcast while I'm driving to and from work
Pizza Hut isn't fast food. Pizza Hut Express is.
"Fast food" isn't about the quality or cuisine (although it's generally considered cheap / lowest-common-denominator). It's the method of service. If there's table service, especially if wait staff takes your order, it's not fast food. If you order at a counter or kiosk and there's no table service, it is. The occasional hybrids of counter ordering and table service probably fall under "fast casual". Which is a minor distinction.
I think the thing is a lot of people put fast food as a food quality, when really fast food is about how the food is delivered and it just so happens it's usually just cheaper lower quality food. Some places do definitely chase the fast food tail chain by making relatively quickly to arrive and cheap to purchase food, but I would argue they aren't actually fast food as I'm not going to head to them for that as they don't have the appeals, speed or service of fast food or if I'm needing to get food fast, it's not where I'm stopping at because they're not going to get my food to m e as fast or be as simple to take with me on the go. They're options that are cheap and serviceable and are like fast food, and some like Pizza Hut deliver, but they're not what I'm going to stop at for the specific need of fast food, rather just for cheap relatively quick dining.
Whether it's fast food or not isn't about the quality or fanciness. TGIF/Applebees and the like are sit down family restaurants not fast food. Hole in the wall diners aren't fast food either. And while you can get your food fast, I wouldn't consider buffets like golden corral, China buffet whatever fast-food. Same for cafeterias like the apparently defunct Morrison's or Piccadilly's.
I don't even eat chicken and I like popeyes. Biscuits and red beans for life.
Yeah, I legitimately like their BBQ chicken pizza.
The CPK frozen pizzas are also good.
More of a casual sit down place. They have an amazing dessert in the Butter Cake that is damn good with ice cream.
Yeah if you can't get it served to you in a car it's not fast food.